250 watt MH over 40 gallon?

[aquawolf]

Okay, I am starting to look for a light for my 40 gallon that is currently FOWLR. I would like to eventually add an anemone or two to the tank once it is fully established. I was looking at getting a Coralife Aqualight 150 watt clamp-on, but then found a deal over on RC.

It is a 250 watt PFO DE pendant with a Blue Wave 3 ballast. Would that work over a 40 gallon or is it going to be way too much and burn everything? This is a standard 40, not a breeder.

[chrischris]

i think it will kill alot of soft corals but sps and anemones it would be great

[aquawolf]

Does it matter that the tank is 36" long? I remember reading somewhere that you usually want one MH per 2 ft of tank. However, in this case I am wondering if it would actually work out better because the far edges of the tank might be lit less intensely.

The tank measures 12 X 36 X 20.

Any more opinions before I go ahead and pull the trigger on this sale?

[chrischris]

what lights are you running now?
mh are only good for light (strong light) for a bout a 2' square but ill put off light up to 3ish feet (very low light past the 2 foot mark)

[aquawolf]

Stock aquarium lights as it is only FOWLR right now and the fish and rock don't really need the strong lighting. The only reason I am thinking about this lighting right now is for the eventual addition of the anemones. Right now it only has 3 Ocellaris Clowns and a Blue Devil Damsel and all of them get along fine. This is my planned fish load for the tank for the long term, unless something really strange happens. A couple of colorful sticks later might be cool, but I am going to continue taking it very slow with this tank.

[chrischris]

i think if you dont want to load the tank with sps then a 250w going to heat up the tank alot and thats a whole new set of problems so if you can find a deal on a t5 setup or 150w mh fixture then that would be better for what your wanting to do

[aquawolf]

You know, until you mentioned it I hadn't even thought of the heat issue.

Will anemones do well under T5 lighting? I have seen a couple of fixtures I am interested in but wasn't too sure about the whole T5 versus MH deal.

My wife will be most happy with you for saving us the money I was getting ready to spend on this setup.

Thanks for your help.

[chrischris]

no problem
t5 is set up right would be great for anemones you could get a 4 or 6 bulb setup with individual reflectors and it would work perfectly

[jph]

Originally Posted by aquawolf

The tank measures 12 X 36 X 20.

you could put the bulb slightly to one side, so it lights up the left or rightmost 24 inches the brightest, and keep high light demanding corals, or inverts there. and have a low light section on the opposite side.



J.

[aquawolf]

Thanks jph, I was thinking the same thing at first. I already told the guy I was out and am probably going to look for a T5 fixture like Chris suggested.